1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention is generally directed to booster seats and the like for children, and more particularly to a child seat with a positionally adjustable seat back.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical booster seat has a seating surface with a front edge and a seat back spaced a distance rearward of the front edge. Often, the seating surface is also surrounded on either side by a raised rim or side wall, which is a continuation of the seat back. The raised rim wall on the sides of the seating surface and the seat back are sometimes of the same height and typically not high enough to provide sufficient back support for young occupants of the seat occupant. Very small and young seat occupants typically might need some substantial back support while seated in the seat. Some boosters provide a seat back with a height that is sufficient to provide support for such an occupant. On either type of booster seat, the distance from the front edge of the seating surface to the seat back is fixed.
The typical booster seat is thus configured to accommodate a limited size range of children. It has become apparent to the inventors that the typical booster seat is too big for smaller and/or younger children to be able to actually use it. The height of the seat back on many booster seats is insufficient to provide support for the smaller seat occupant. However, a higher seat back may reduce the comfort of the seat for larger children, or can even become a hindrance to a seat occupant of a particularly large size. The distance between the front edge of the seating surface and the seat back can also be too long for the smaller child so that either they cannot even reach or touch the seat back, or their knee joints cannot reach the front edge of the seating surface with their back against the seat back.
A new government booster seat standard also requires the use of a harness for a child under a certain age on boosters, highchairs, youth chairs and the like. A highchair is sometimes designed so that it can be reconfigured from a highchair configuration (for infants and toddlers) to a youth chair configuration (for older children). Some highchairs are configured with a harness to assist in restraining the occupant of the highchair in the seat. The harness may not be removable from the highchair and, thus, the highchair might not be particularly comfortable for larger children that may not utilize, or are not required to utilize, the harness. On some highchairs, the harnesses can be removed, but this is rather cumbersome and reinstallation of the harness if needed can also be tedious and difficult. Some boosters are also configured with a harness. The harness may also be removable from the booster seat. However, harness removal is still difficult and the size restrictions of these types of highchairs and booster seats present the same problems noted above with respect to a typical booster seat.